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Punk, Pop Punk, Hardcore, Metal, Emo MusicMon, 19 Mar 2018 10:31:38 +0000en-GBhourly1Bad Religion to release remastered version of ‘Stranger Than Fiction’http://www.punktastic.com/news/bad-religion-to-release-remastered-version-of-stranger-than-fiction/
Tue, 23 Jan 2018 20:27:33 +0000http://www.punktastic.com/?post_type=news&p=212546Bad Religion have recently announced that they will be releasing a remastered version of their eighth album ‘Stranger Than Fiction’.

Originally released in 1994 through Atlantic Records, the reissue will be released on the 9th March via Epitaph Records.

Later this year the band are expected to be releasing their follow up to 2013’s ‘True North’.

]]>Holy Roar Records’ 12 Bands of Christmas: Part IIIhttp://www.punktastic.com/radar/holy-roar-records-12-bands-of-christmas-part-iii/
Mon, 11 Dec 2017 12:00:58 +0000http://www.punktastic.com/?post_type=radar&p=211036Giants are the subject of Part III in our Holy Roar Records’ 12 Bands of Christmas feature. Ahead of the band’s show at the Old Blue Last on December 14 they’ve selected ten tracks that inspired them, to whet your appetite. Don’t miss out on this free gig, including support from Pints and Goblins, as we say goodbye to Giants at their last ever show.

10 Songs that inspired Giants

Alexisonfire – ‘Drunks, Lovers Sinners and Saints’

Alexisonfire have always been a massive influence for this band, but I remember seeing them open their set in The Lockup tent at Reading Festival 2006 and it changed my life. The way it just explodes into the most anthemic chorus ever still gives me chills.

Go It Alone – ‘Rapture’

Everything about this band ruled. The guitar tones and lyrical content alone tops any hardcore band of today in my opinion, but it’s the sheer ferocity of the fast punky parts straight into the breakdowns that inspired our writing from an early point right up to writing for our debut album.

Comeback Kid – ‘Final Goodbye’

I don’t think it’s a secret to anyone that we love this band and take a huge influence from them. Touring with them was the greatest honour, they are the best dudes and the sickest live band in the game, almost 20 years into their career. Beast of a band.

Verse – ‘Old Guards, New Methods’

‘Aggression’ was one of the first hardcore records I heard that made me think about pushing the boundaries with songwriting. The melodies achieved in these songs are lush, whilst still being part of a record that sounds aggressive as fuck.”

Bad Religion – ‘Big Bang’

Tony Hawks’ Pro Skater games were the best games of our childhood; the soundtracks introduced me to so many different styles of music. I saw Bad Religion play this year and they killed it. They’re the grandads of hardcore punk and no one does it better.

Rise Against – ‘Collapse (Post Amerika)’

A massive influence on our songwriting and my singing from day one, this band will always be one of my favourite bands. They were one of the first bands I listened to where their lyrics meant something more.

Rancid – ‘Fall Back Down’

Literally the song is about your friends and good people around you having your back and being there for you. No one knows quite what it is like to be in a band, unless you’re in a band. Working hard for nothing, with only your mates and your music to keep you going; that’s how that song speaks to me. That, and c’mon, that bass line, that keys line. It’s a damn good song and that album shaped my perception of what music could be. Blah blah blah it’s only a cliche cause of how damn true it is.

Underoath – ‘Breathing In A New Mentality’

Loads of people prefer this band’s earlier material to their new records, but I always thought they got better with every record. The drums on this album are absolutely insane and were a big influence on our debut album.

Bane – ‘Some Come Running’

When I first heard Bane they had already been a band for 10 years and to hear the passion and message they still had in their music was definitely inspiring. They didn’t care about going from playing their local to a stadium it was all about the music. Geezers.

Incubus – ‘Pardon Me’

The mixture of music style and lyrics, relating to what was being said, opened my eyes to a lot of stuff going on in the world and on a personal level. Incubus influenced a lot of my ideas and style in the way I write lyrics.

]]>LIVE: Bad Religion / Gnarwolves @ O2 Forum Kentish Townhttp://www.punktastic.com/live-reviews/live-bad-religion-gnarwolves-o2-forum-kentish-town/
Wed, 09 Aug 2017 11:00:51 +0000http://www.punktastic.com/?post_type=live-reviews&p=204728The term ‘heritage act’ has a lot of connotations — one being ‘old,’ another being ‘important yet no longer relevant.’ LA punk legends Bad Religion have been around for a while, so in theory the term could apply to them, but judging by the unpredictable demographic inside Kentish Town’s Forum, they’re currently more relevant than ever.

All manner of punk t-shirts occupy the crowd, from makeshift TSOL or Negative FX merch to NOFX/Descendants knock-offs, H&M Ramones and Nirvana T’s and the occasional Milk Teeth or Basement extra large tie-dye. A middle aged dude in a denim vest covered in NYC hardcore patches guides his two wide-eyed identical twin sons to settle on the balcony. Interchangeable couples intersect with sullen faced loners on phones, who amble between boozed-up groups of twenty-somethings just out of the office.

Bad Religion have earned this multi-generational crowd due to two very rare traits: consistency and omnipresence. Since their first UK show in 1989, they keep coming back with exactly the same erudite anti-establishment attitude, and through the years they’ve never really changed.

But kicking off the night are Brighton’s melodic punk trio Gnarwolves. With relentless pace and a raw approach to melody, they thunder through a quintessentially English reflection of the headliners, with enough sarcastic optimism and deliberate weirdness to capture the attention of even the most cynical punk.

Opener ‘Straightjacket’ would be a classic if it was released on Fat Wreck in the ’90s, while the band’s undisputed best song ‘Bottle To Bottle’ elicits sparse singalongs from those in the know. Frontman Thom Weeks fills mid-song silence with expert banter about airline pork chops fashioned from mealworms, and it feels like a Stewart Lee bit. Bassist Charlie Piper shrieks like a banshee and drummer Max Weeks hurtles into ‘Boneyard’ with the athletic resilience of a professional marathon runner.

Closing powerfully, the casuals here might be inclined to see this as a passing of the baton. But as the support wander off, their slapdash hand-painted banner drops to reveal Bad Religion’s iconic CrossBuster logo, and a wave of excitement ripples through the room. The drunk twenty-somethings take skew-whiff selfies as proof of attendance, while the sullen-faced loners weave to the centre of the room in trembling mosh pit anticipation. The rest of the room realises they’re about to experience something immortal.

Legendary guitarist/Epitaph founder Brett Gurewitz enters first, looking remarkably unaffected by the previous decade, followed by frontman Greg Graffin, who skips onto stage with two extended middle fingers and launches into ‘American Jesus’ like he’s been frozen in a block of ice since the last show. A career-wide set follows, covering everything from 1982’s ‘We’re Only Gonna Die’ to 2013’s ‘Fuck You’ with a reliable sonic consistency that never once sacrifices energy for musicianship. They retain the band’s signature aloof sense of melody throughout.

There’s also something new at play: every one of Graffin’s Gurewitz-penned political lyrics is enunciated more clearly than usual. It’s as if in the shadow of Trump lines like “sometimes truth is stranger than fiction” and “they hide behind their lies that they’re helping everyone” have a new lease of life.

This same re-energisation is echoed in drummer Jamie Miller’s mechanical stamina, while bassist Jay Bentley acts as second frontman, still beaming like it’s his first show, and the faithful crowd reaction is a welcome surprise. Specific highlights include mid-paced anthem ’21st Century Digital Boy’, which evokes the loudest singalong of the night, and ‘Punk Rock Song’ which encapsulates everything that has given the band such longevity. The closing encore of ‘The Handshake’, ‘Infected’ and ‘Fuck Armageddon… This Is Hell’ whips the pits into peak madness and then the band suddenly vanishes into thin air.

Fire exits fill with the same families and couples and loners as before, but this time it’s quieter. Ironically, a Bad Religion show is a borderline religious experience. Attendees bear witness to something familiar and impossible to forget, leaving with refreshed political and personal tools to live by. The decades have given them a similar reputation to bands like Slayer or AC/DC — a comforting and exhilarating experience, that garners both retrospective acclaim and imprints itself on the present with an ever-shifting sense of socio-political relevance. Maybe the definition of ‘heritage act’ needs a rethink?

]]>Bad Religion announce UK showshttp://www.punktastic.com/news/bad-religion-announce-uk-shows/
Wed, 01 Mar 2017 21:10:16 +0000http://www.punktastic.com/?post_type=news&p=196405Bad Religion have announced that they’ll be playing a few UK shows this August.

The dates will include an appearance at Rebellion Festival in Blackpool. The band are also expected to release their seventeenth album and follow up to 2013’s ‘True North’ later this year.

]]>Against Me!, Bad Religion and Dave Hause team up for potential tour of the yearhttp://www.punktastic.com/news/against-me-bad-religion-and-dave-hause-team-up-for-potential-tour-of-the-year/
Tue, 12 Jul 2016 09:01:00 +0000http://www.punktastic.com/?post_type=news&p=183969For those of you lucky enough to live in the United States, or be heading over there between the end of September and the start of November, three of the greatest punk bands and artists in existence are heading out on the road together.

Us here in the UK, where the majority of our team are based, will have to look on longingly for the time-being. If Against Me!, Bad Religion and Dave Hause did feel like bringing their show over the Atlantic though, I’m sure nobody would protest.

As Against Me! complete working on album, a trip over the Europe is likely to be on the cards. With no official word on the title or date yet, an Autumn release is all we have to go on.

]]>The Offspring and Bad Religion announce three UK dateshttp://www.punktastic.com/news/the-offspring-and-bad-religion-announce-three-uk-dates/
Mon, 15 Feb 2016 16:14:45 +0000http://www.punktastic.com/?post_type=news&p=176544Punk veterans The Offspring and Bad Religion are joining forces for the Summer Nationals, bringing both bands to the UK for three shows in June.

Tickets for the shows, taking place in Birmingham, Glasgow and London, go on sale this Friday [19th February] at 9AM.

]]>Stream Bad Religion’s live version of ‘We’re Only Gonna Die’http://www.punktastic.com/news/stream-bad-religions-live-version-of-were-only-gonna-die/
Mon, 25 Jan 2016 14:04:53 +0000http://www.punktastic.com/?post_type=news&p=175383To celebrate the announcement that Bad Religion’s ’30 Years Live’ album, originally released in 2010, will be seeing a vinyl release on the 26th February, Epitaph Records have uploaded a live version of ‘We’re Only Gonna Die’ to their YouTube channel.

Bad Religion recently parted with drummer Brooks Wackerman, who has since joined Avenged Sevenfold. A replacement is yet to be announced, but the band plan to continue touring, heading across the States in March.

Bad Religion went around the world with a special Battle of the Centuries tour: one night they played songs from the 80’s and 90’s; the other featured songs from 2000 on. Two unique sets with 60+ songs over two nights made for two of the best shows I’ve seen from Bad Religion in my many years of seeing them. These shots are from the first night. It was a sold out show and since it was 80’s/90’s night, I didn’t feel old, for once. I did go to the second night, but only to get proper wasted and set a fine example for the kids that 29 is not too old for mosh pits.